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So to keep our News and Rumor free of non News and Rumor related discussion

I was wondering what everyone thinks about this pic from GENCON


I am trying to figure out what niche this will be for the Hassassins, she appears to have a hefty choice of weapons. Also interesting that she appears to be the first Hassassin that is unmasked.

My only wild guess is it could be an official line trooper for the Hassassins, could be an AVA Total troop that comes in between the Gulams and the Muyibs.

I like the jacket aesthetic. She looks to me like light medium infantry (if that makes sense) so your assessment could well be spot on. The only things she's lacking to be on par with ghulam are skills that wouldn't be represented here in an equipment pic. The fact that she's unmasked removes the sinister air about her as a hassassin & hearkens towards the more straight up military vs the sneaky black bag hassassin, again much like the ghulam, daylami, sekhban, hafza. Her battle rattle seems similar to hafza sans the butt flap. At least from what I can tell.

Cha-cha-cha!

The unit might have MSV 1, should be AVA: T. Interesting how well spread is the breaker pistol.

Really can't wait to get my hands on those.

Hassassins are so far my favourite part of Haqqislam (though I expect Caliphate will be up there), but Hassassin Bahram just doesn't quite feel right yet. It feels like vanilla Haqqislam without the options. What it does gain in higher AVA you mostly won't use - linked teams of Lasiqs and Muyibs are great, but the rest of the boosted AVA doesn't feel like it would get used. I mean, does anyone really feel like using 4 Ragiks instead of 3? Or 2 Fidays and Al Djabel instead of 1 and Al Djabel? How many people really run an Asawira link?

The only unit other than Lasiqs and Muyibs that really feels like it got a benefit from higher AVA is the Farzan, which is a fantastic little infiltrating camo FO. It could use another model though for the rifle profile.

I'm really hoping this is a unit that's going to do some gap filling for Hassassins. Give us an LI that's cheaper than Muyibs for the basic rifle and shotgun variants, give us some longer range hitting power with the sniper rifle, missile launcher and HMG, and an all round cheaper link than a Muyib or Lasiq link. Throw in some linkable specialists like an Engineer (the Najjarun really needs to be linkable with Ghulam too) and hacker (Hassassins are really lacking in the hacking area despite it being a really useful tool for future assassins). Maybe throw in, as Knight said, a profile with MSV 1 (though I wouldn't want it on all profiles, to keep costs down). However, keep the AVA high in Bahram and low in vanilla, like Muyibs. Give us a reason to go Bahram with these.

The lack of a faceplate is an interesting design choice. There's a lot of concept art in Artbook 1 of Hassassin without faceplates, and some look like they'd made really good models to paint. Maybe this will make an aesthetic departure for Hassassin, and we might see the odd alternate or new weapon sculpt lack a faceplate.

I do have AVA: 4 Akal commandos and Kirpal Singh in Acotencimento. The most I've run were two, after that I have experienced some serious order drain. Never touched Guarda de Assalto, although they're AVA: 4.

I don't really care about the helmets, nicely done faces are a joy to paint. After painting Trauma Doc and Konstantinos I can say that cloaks/vests are really neat to paint. They give overall nifty and easy saturation of colours with plenty of spare time to fiddle with more exposed areas.

Honestly, cherry picking MSV would be really good. I can recall only Kazaks and Moblots being able to pick it. Who knows how they've rewritten them.

I can see certain sectorials gaining more specialist options, engineer will probably stay limited for Haqq. Although a lot of recent new units were given an engineer option (Thorakites, Wildcats and Bolts) and with mines being really strong tool, maybe it will be added. Forward Observer would be to tech savvy for Haqq? It's going to be magnificent in N3.

I think they are going to be similar to Bolts or Grenzers, maybe a blend of both but somewhat lighter on the armour and BTS attribute. That sounds rather flexible and fun unit to play.

I don't see how Forward Observers are too 'tech savy' for Haqqislam. they already have forward observers. Bahram has two that I can recall off the top of my head - the Barid and the Farzan. Qapu Khalki has the Al Hawwa as well. I'm probably forgetting some.

What Bahram lacks, however, is linkable specialists. They get the Doctor with Muyibs and Asawira (and really, who takes links of these guys?), and Doctor and hacker with Ghulam. But they lack an offensively themed link with hackers or forward observers.

I'm kind of hoping they take this chance to sort of make them the Bahram 'Kaplans'. Light infantry with specialist options for going around taking objectives, with good fire support options. But then they could do the same with Muyibs by just giving them a hacker and/or forward observer profile.

There's really not much else of a role for another light infantry link team, unless, as said, they get MSV's or something. Otherwise they'll feel like a release for the sake of a release.

 -Loki- wrote:
But then they could do the same with Muyibs by just giving them a hacker and/or forward observer profile.

As demolitions experts, it's always struck me that Muyibs aren't suited for a Doctor profile (despite Doctors being "Haqq's thing") and would be better if they traded it in for an Engineer and probably Forward Observer profile too (as sometimes demolitions is best served with an artillery strike).

If you really want a Hassassin doctor, the role would be better filled by something like the Reverend Healer seems likely to be for Bakunin - a specialised unit with the potential to link with any related unit type.

So I gleaned this tidbit from the official forums in regards to the Govad.

Hassassin86
Dr. Death, M.D.

Members
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Posted Today, 05:47 AM
Bostria confirmed at Gencon that they will be MSV1 and linkable...and also that their visors will be down haha. I specifically asked him about the visors because it's not very hassassin'esque and he said that the artist was just on a kick with drawing faces and that they will have their visors down like the other hassassins.

P.S. Deathwig, you forgot about the total reaction rem.

So I feel this removes the idea that they will be a Hassassin line trooper, but more like the MAFs Yaogats.

 -Loki- wrote:
I don't see how Forward Observers are too 'tech savy' for Haqqislam.

Noticeable lack of such gadget on anything resembling line or medium infantry. See Briscard, Fusiliers, Alguacil. At the moment it's not such big deal and having FO option on specialist with camouflage is going to be even more advantageous in N3. However it's also going to be rather flexible option on cheaper models, especially in N3. Running Muyib (or similar costed link team) really makes you appreciate cheaper support options. It could be design decision to limit FO option for Haqq, but with new Yu-Jing HI having all sorts of options and is being labelled as a rather standard line profile... Something to ponder on.

I was going to say, they could just add a balaclava style mask to them, that way they can still do some with the visors up. As it is, the helmet looks like the visor only covers the eyes, leaving the mouth exposed. If that's the case, it's still a first for the Hassassins to have even part of the face exposed.

It sounds to me like you're thinking these are going to be more of an elite infantry. As long as it gives the Bahram more units, I'm happy with it. They feel somewhat lacking to me. Like they've got a lot of elite, specialist type units and not a lot in the way of basic grunt types.

 Barzam wrote:
I was going to say, they could just add a balaclava style mask to them, that way they can still do some with the visors up. As it is, the helmet looks like the visor only covers the eyes, leaving the mouth exposed. If that's the case, it's still a first for the Hassassins to have even part of the face exposed.

It sounds to me like you're thinking these are going to be more of an elite infantry. As long as it gives the Bahram more units, I'm happy with it. They feel somewhat lacking to me. Like they've got a lot of elite, specialist type units and not a lot in the way of basic grunt types.

Maybe, but I expect it will look fairly close tot he rest of the Hassassin bunch.

So we know they have access to heavy weapons and MSV 1, as well as being linkable. Also I will post this image of the Lasiq, whom is also a Medium Infantry and she is arguably as heavily dressed as the Govad. So I think it is quite reasonable to assume they could be MI.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also maybe this is common knowledge, but I didn't know. Breaker pistol are viral.

Fair enough, I can live with them being Bahrams 'MSV' option. Makes me wonder if they're going to be linkable, however, and if they're not, what else they will bring to the table. Just having a big gun and MSV 1 makes them feel like a light Djanbazan. I'd prefer to see something a little more unique if they're specialising the unit.

I like that they're sticking to their guns and giving them the visor. They mentioned in Artbook 1 that is was a central theme to the Hassassin. It would have been fun having a visible face to paint on a Hassassin unit, but I do like the soul-less, unified look a Hassassin force has due to those visors.

 -Loki- wrote:
Fair enough, I can live with them being Bahrams 'MSV' option. Makes me wonder if they're going to be linkable, however, and if they're not, what else they will bring to the table. Just having a big gun and MSV 1 makes them feel like a light Djanbazan. I'd prefer to see something a little more unique if they're specialising the unit.

I like that they're sticking to their guns and giving them the visor. They mentioned in Artbook 1 that is was a central theme to the Hassassin. It would have been fun having a visible face to paint on a Hassassin unit, but I do like the soul-less, unified look a Hassassin force has due to those visors.

Same here, I prefer the soul-less look of the Hassassin. It makes them feel more like unquestioning, uncompromising men and women whose ends justify the means.

I prefer the masked look as well. But, if you did want an unmasked Hassassin, it wouldn't be that hard to do. Just a headswap away.

I think I could live with the Govad as a Bahram version of the Djanbazan.

I think what we all now know from this thread, is that CB should definitely make a masked miniature that looks like ShatteredBlade's avatar..

For a non-visored version, perhaps one day they will do some kind of Bootleg miniature with one of them preparing their equipment, and therefore un-visored?